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<a name="chapter-introduction"></a>Chapter 1. libxml++</h1></div></div></div>
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<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
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<li><span class="sect1"><a href="chapter-introduction.html#idp53605392">Installation</a></span></li>
<li><span class="sect1"><a href="ch01s02.html">UTF-8 and Glib::ustring</a></span></li>
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<p>
      libxml++ is a C++ API for the popular <a class="ulink" href="http://www.xmlsoft.org" target="_top">libxml2</a> XML parser, written in C.
      libxml2 is famous for its high performance and compliance to standard specifications, but its C API is quite difficult even for common tasks.
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<p>
      libxml++ presents a simple C++-like API that can achieve common tasks with less code.
      Unlike some other C++ parsers, it does not try to avoid the advantages of standard C++ features
      such as namespaces, STL containers or runtime type identification, and it does not try
      to conform to standard API specifications meant for Java. Therefore libxml++ requires
      a fairly modern C++ compiler such as g++ 4.9 or g++ 5. libxml++ 2.39.1 and later require
      a C++11-compliant compiler.
    </p>
<p>But libxml++ was created mainly to fill the need for an API-stable and ABI-stable C++ XML parser which could be used as a shared library dependency by C++ applications that are distributed widely in binary form. That means that installed applications will not break when new versions of libxml++ are installed on a user's computer. Gradual improvement of the libxml++ API is still possible via non-breaking API additions, and new independent versions of the ABI that can be installed in parallel with older versions. These are the general techniques and principles followed by the <a class="ulink" href="http://www.gnome.org" target="_top">GNOME</a> project, of which libxml++ is a part.</p>
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<a name="idp53605392"></a>Installation</h2></div></div></div>
<p>libxml++ is packaged by major Linux and *BSD distributions and can be installed from source on Linux and Windows, using any modern compiler, such as g++, SUN Forte, or MSVC++.</p>
<p>For instance, to install libxml++ and its documentation on debian, use apt-get or synaptic like so:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting">
    # apt-get install libxml++2.6-dev libxml++2.6-doc
    </pre>
<p>
    </p>
<p>To check that you have the libxml++ development packages installed, and that your environment is working properly, try <span class="command"><strong>pkg-config libxml++-2.6 --modversion</strong></span>.</p>
<p>Links for downloading and more documentation can be found at <a class="ulink" href="http://libxmlplusplus.sourceforge.net" target="_top">libxmlplusplus.sourceforge.net</a>.
    libxml++ is licensed under the LGPL, which allows its use via dynamic linking in both open source and closed-source software. The underlying libxml2 library uses the even more generous MIT licence.</p>
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